Pentax K-30 review: get the verdict on this new weatherproof DSLR

Our testing team has had their hands on the recently announced Pentax K-30 and put the camera through their rigorous regime of lab and field tests. They’ve posted their full, scientific Pentax K-30 review over on our sister site TechRadar. So go there for all your image quality analysis, noise charts and more. If you want some of the review highlights and the verdict… well, find out below what our in-house experts thought.

One of the benefits to photographers of Canon and Nikon being so dominant in the market is that other companies like Pentax have to think a little bit harder to offer prospective buyers something different.

In several cases this has resulted in manufacturers turning to compact system cameras (CSC) and abandoning their SLR line-up.

So after its flurry of activity in the compact system camera (CSC) market, bringing out the teeny-tiny Pentax Q and chunky K-01, it’s great that Pentax is still interested in SLRs and has introduced the K-30. And with a weather-sealed body, high resolution LCD screen and a 100% viewfinder it seems like quite a compelling option sitting below the K-5 in Pentax’s two camera SLR line-up.

Features
At the heart of the Pentax K-30 is an APS-C (23.7×15.7mm) format CMOS sensor with 16.28 million effective pixels.

This sensor is able to shift to correct camera shake. Pentax’s Shake Reduction system functions just about whatever lens is mounted and can be set to the correct focal length if the camera cannot automatically detect the information.

In addition, when the Shake Reduction system is activated the K-30 can rotate the sensor automatically by up to 1 degree to correct the composition and avoid a sloping horizon. There’s also a digital level display option for the viewfinder and LCD screen.

The same system allows image composition to be adjusted up, down or left or right by up to 1mm over 16 steps. It’s hard to imagine this being used very often, but a 1mm movement at sensor level makes a reasonably significant difference, which could prove useful with critical still life or macro set-ups.